In Rotation 16 | Art of the State 17 | Foodfinds 18 | Fi¬m 20
Is Northern Nevada really by JESSICA SANTINA illustrations by HAYLEY DOSHAY
This world is often a tough place for us parents.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot in the three years since I became a mother. Back when she was an infant, I used to take my daughter for long walks in the stroller. I got extremely frustrated when I found that none of the local malls had automatic doors that enabled me to push my stroller in to shop. It’s such a simple thing—why didn’t anyone think moms wanted to shop, too? I’ve heard it said that the Reno/Sparks/Tahoe area is familyfriendly, and I think that in some respects that’s true, especially in July, when Artown offers a number of free activities for parents with young children. When I asked a few friends about their experiences raising children here, they seemed incredulous that I might think otherwise. After all, parks and playgrounds abound here, don’t they? And what about the programs at the libraries? The Discovery Museum? Aces Ballpark? But then again, Nevada ranks 40th among all states for child wellbeing, according to Zero to Three, the National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families. And cities around Nevada rank very low for family friendliness; Las Vegas was the only Nevada city to even crack the Top 100 Best Cities to Raise a Family in a recent survey by Children’s Health magazine (just barely—it was No. 100). From stroller-friendly doors, to kids’ meals that aren’t loaded with fat, to restaurant high chairs and booster seats that aren’t broken, to activities priced and scheduled to accommodate families, there’s a multitude of things that Northern Nevada communities and businesses could do to make this area more family friendly: 14
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RN&R
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JULY 5, 2012
1) Accommodate families’ schedules: Last
summer, when my daughter was two, I began looking for some toddler swimming lessons. After scouring parks and rec listings, I found few options; most of them took place between 9 and 11 a.m. on weekdays, which was impossible for me, a working mother. I found exactly one Saturday class scheduled to begin in August. Registration didn’t open until two weeks prior, at 9 a.m. When I called the number at the city of Sparks to register her for it, at 9:15, I found it was already full. Zero to Three says that 32 percent of Nevada’s children live with a single parent, and 65 percent of Nevada’s children under 6 live with working parents. If you want to encourage families to participate in family-friendly activities, scheduling more during evenings and weekends might help.
2) Consider cost: The swim
class option I found is a private swim school with evening and weekend hours. But as Cindy Johnson, president of the Reno Association for the Education of Young Children, points out, “Things like that school are wonderful, but there are a lot of parents in our community who can’t afford them.” Affordability of family-friendly activities is certainly a concern. Zero to Three says that 45 percent of Nevada’s infants and toddlers live in low-income families. If Northern Nevada communities and businesses want to improve their access for families with young children, pricing right is a great first step. Then there’s your average restaurant kid’s meal, which here in the Reno/Sparks area ranges from $4 to $7 at restaurants like Chili’s, Applebee’s, Red Robin, Olive Garden, and P.F. Chang’s sampled. Tahoe restaurants are even less accommodating, with
kids’ meals starting around $8 for Steamer’s, The Beacon and Spindleshanks sampled. When you consider families with more than one child, and how the outsized portions leave much of the plate uneaten, that’s a considerable amount of money thrown away.
3) Consider kids’ health: My sampling of several
local parks reveals broken playground equipment, lack of shade, and slides that absorb too much heat and make sliding down them an exercise in scorched little bottoms. And then there’s the food. In a sampling of a 12 chain and independently owned restaurants in Reno, Sparks and Lake Tahoe, I found remarkably limited children’s food options. Kids’ menus rarely veer from spaghetti, Kraft macaroni and cheese, corn dogs, mini-pizzas, hamburgers, chicken nuggets/tenders and grilled cheese. According to a 2008 study by The Center for Science in the Public Interest, of the 1,474 kids’ meals from national chain restaurants analyzed, 93 percent had more calories and 45 percent had more saturated fat and trans fats than kids need. Why not offer half orders of regular menu items? Why assume kids don’t want variety? The Center for Science in the Public Interest reports that Americans eat out more now than ever before, with restaurant meals providing more than one-third of our calories. Why not make them good ones? I applaud the occasional restaurant—thank you, BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse—that offers veggies and dip as a side item option.
